Covid19 Day 42 Saturday May 9

The day was cooler, with a threat of rain, but I took a break and drove 30minutes south to Cleary Lake to go on a barefoot hike with three other barefooters.

The soil was nice and damp and cool everywhere and I marveled anew at the many varied sensations we can feel through our foot soles.

The new green that is appearing for spring is at that very tender stage.  And so refreshing to see.

I read long ago that it is good for mental well-being to look far away and at the same time to look at green vegetation.  It was tangible how this played on my mind yesterday.

On Facebook I described the day as a beautiful, informal,social distancing, soul cleansing, brain resetting barefoot hike, ending just before the rain arrived!


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Covid19 Day 32 Wednesday April 29

After Coffee with Judy, I went to set up a second laptop at Gina’s office so that she and a friend can both attend Zoom classes about massage work – two different courses – two different rooms.

 

We bought some topsoil/compost mix for the vegetable garden and Wilhelm started exercising his wheelbarrow skills.

I was able to spent most of the day finishing this piece of leather tooling.
The original art was a drawing a student of mine did in class about 30 years ago.  I never complained if they were drawing while I spoke – I knew that they were taking in everything I said.  I would hate to teach now in the age of cell phones!

We went for a walk around the block and I took this photo of the sunset.  For many scenarios the phone cameras do a really good job, but not sunsets.  I used a panorama shot for this, hence the straight wires that are now bent out of shape….

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Covid19 Day 30 Monday April 27

I had Coffee with Judy again.

In between things  I have been working on migrating my leather instruction blog to a new host – that will be ongoing for a few days.

Then I gave the last push to get this Bible box done.  It worked and I am very relieved.

 

On FaceBook I described the above photo with “Using the last bit of late afternoon sunshine to enjoy the last few drops from the bottle of Laphroaig while finishing the last few loose ends on a long tedious project!

This evening I joined Gina for a walk around the block.  Luckily my feet are not toooo tender after the winter.  It was beautiful!

I then I still had time to use this 40 year old beast to cut my own hair:

Covid19 Day 28 Saturday April 25

Beautiful sunny day – all the way up to 22°C!

I slept late.

Then I took spices and vinegar to a butcher for him to make us some boerewors.  It works out a bit expensive, but it’s a big operation to make your own.

I took Wilhelm to the archery range again.

This afternoon we ordered takeout from our very favorite local little restaurant – they are having a tough time keeping head above the water in these times.

I had a major battle to get my leatherwork instruction blog to be visible after applying security to it so that the web address starts with https://    Even have an active ticket in to my host.   

So I decided in stead to migrate the blog over to Blogger – there are automatic ways to do it, but I am going to take the blog posts over one by one.  The new one does not look too bad and will be visible at    
https://leatherlearn.johan-potgieter.com/

I spent some time stitching the Bible box out in the sun!  

 

Covid19 Day 27 Friday April 24

Day started with Coffee with Judy again – well, in my case breakfast…..

I made Welsh Rarebit for the family, made a batch of droē wors (photo later) and gave a big push on the Bible box – just stitching is left now!

I was able to go sit outside and do some of the stitching while Wilhelm put the final touches to the walls of the raised garden:

The day was ended with Wilhelm braaing, and doing veggies on the gril too….!  (No pics)

Covid19 Day 26 Thursday April 23

Coffee with Judy again.

I took Wilhelm to the archery range and got some needed groceries.

To escape the news and listen to something uplifting, I played a two hour long video on YouTube using a high end speaker – the Three Tenors in London in 1990.  [And I got a big push on the Bible Box!]

More old things came to light – one of them a book by Burne Hoharth.   There was a photo inside showing the wall hanging I made from his drawing.  It was done on blue-wildebeest leather, somewhere around 1990.  I still have it.

We rounded the evening off with our Small Group from church sharing and caring for each other.

Covid19 Day 25 Wednesday April 22

Coffee with Judy started the day – discussing spiritual things with a small group who are quick becoming friends.

After that quickly to my store to make sure everything was still OK there.

Wilhelm took advantage of the very nice day to make good progress on the raised garden he is constructing.  I find myself slowly getting very excited about this project.

I attended an online class again that Jim Linnell was presenting – one of my first lessons from him was also on feather making and this was the result:   (the top two someone else did – I did the two bronze ones and the bottom one was the demo piece Jim did in the class.)

 

I was also able to push some progress on the Bible box I am making – here installing the zippers while the sun streams into the room!  The sewing machine is hand-crank: pilling the handle all the way forward and all the way back makes one single stitch.

Later in the afternoon I took advantage of the good weather to take a nice walk next to the Mississippi river.

Covid19 Day 24 Tuesday April 21

Funky day.

Started again with “Coffee with Judy”.

Then called my mom and helped her with her computer.

I did leatherwork and almost completed the beginner blog post.  When someone on Facebook said the could not open it……

So then a big part of the afternoon was spent with a service desk chat with my service provider.  Not resolved – they escalated to a technical boffin.

This afternoon I took Wilhelm to a local archery range so that he could practice a bit.


 

 

And I modified the neckline of the T-shirt I had on.   What the hell is the problem with men’s T-shirt necklines that they have to be so chokingly high!!!!   Just plain stupid!!!!  BUT scissors do wonders:

Covid19 Day 22 Sunday April 19

Watched our church service online and was disappointed that it was a recorded service (few days before) and not a live broadcast.  I would rather watch a glitchy live stream than a recorded program where the person says “Good morning….” and you know he is probably telling a lie – he probably recorded this in the afternoon.  In these a-social times it is just not good.

I carried on recording video  for a big new blog post on leather tooling.

Quick visit to Mark to pick up excess groceries that overflowed at Ruby’s Pantry where he volunteered.

Covid19 Day 21 Saturday April 18

It was a good day.

Here is the Journal cover I made yesterday afternoon:

I took Gina very early to her friend’s office from where the three ladies were departing to take the friend’s move to Holden, MO.  They left at 8am and were in Holden at 6pm.  She is coming back on Monday.

I then took Wilhelm to buy more lumber for the vegetable garden he is building.

I made was able to finish a few cable organisers.

And I started with a very elementary leatherwork instruction for my leather instruction blog at 

www.leatherlearn.com

 

I also found and cleaned a pendant that I received from a correspondent in Engand – Patricia Bury.  Her husband Derek made it out of sterling silver.  He sent it to an assay office in London where they applied the for stamps that indicate that it is pure silver, was assayed in London, was made by DTB (Derek Bury’s makers mark), and that it was assayed in 1979 (the stylized “e” shows that).